The Time Has Come To Give Classic Clocks Due Respect

Workers punch them, sleepyheads rely on them, trains and planes honor them, and no home is without at least one of them. Whether the style be humble or grand, clocks synchronize our lives.

According to Better Homes and Gardens Decorating magazine, it's been that way for some time. Prehistoric man studied the shadows on a tree. Ancients measured time by dripping water, by sifting sand, and by fire burning from knot to knot on a rope.

But it wasn't until about 1300 that the clock as we know it, with wheels, dial, and hour hand, was invented by Henry DeVick. Weights were added in the 14th century, springs in the 16th century, and, in 1656, Dutchman Christian Huygens proudly devised the first accurate pendulum clock.

Stumped to improve on clock mechanics, French, German, and Dutch designers focused on style, encasing clocks in replicas of buildings and animals and brushing them with seascapes. Consequently, clocks were once coveted possessions of the rich.

In America, a technological revolution led by Boston clockmakers Simon and Aaron Willard made clocks smaller, suitable for walls and shelves.

In 1802, Simon Willard patented the banjo clock. By the mid-19th century, American craftsmen had claimed clockmaking as a homegrown art. In 1880, Seth Thomas introduced a perpetual clock calendar with the monthly minder on a separate weight-driven mechanism.

The Industrial Revolution made clocks de rigueur in every school, depot, office, and home. Twentieth-century electricity and quartz technology fine- tuned the clock's accuracy and diminished its size.

Awed by the perfect functioning of the clock, modern designers, once again, turned to the exterior. Furniture designers and architects, such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, attempted clock design.

Art deco clocks hovered on art with renditions in glass and chrome. In 1934, Gilbert Tohde's plain disc with dots for numerals was in the Museum of Modern Art's ''machine art'' exhibit.

Collectors now pay handsomely for classic original clocks. For example, a 19th-century antique could go for $100,000. An antique Federal-style banjo clock, with brass frets and reverse-painted glass tablets, sold for more than $2,000 a few years ago.

Among the most popular reproduction clock styles are English mantel clocks, schoolhouse wall clocks, grandfather clocks, and carriage clocks.

No matter what style you fancy, study any clock's anatomy before buying. First, consider the power source: electric, winding, pendulum, or quartz. You can't sit and forget a key-wound clock; it requires daily or weekly attention. If it's a vintage clock, make sure it is working or repairable before you buy it. Don't hesitate to have a clock expert look it over before purchase.

Consider where you will place your clock and the clock's readability. There are water-resistant clocks for the bathroom, portable clocks for the patio, and jumbo-numeral clocks for the visually impaired.